we call “uglification” a current trend that we noticed among artists, both in France and Ukraine, intentionally going against the “good taste” in order to question the paradoxes of our hypermodern era:

 

computer and digital revolution

hypertrophy of consumption 

worship of flawless bodies

mass access to pornographic contents 

end of metaphysics and master narratives

 

instead of strictly tackling those issues, we take an ironic look on their inconsistencies, by twisting the codes of “beauty” specific to each of these hypermodern stigmas. 

 

for most of our artists, this means going back to the roots of that decade in which they grew up, when all excesses were born: from the middle 90’s to the early 2000’s.

 

with ironic detachment, they re-appropriate, redefine and reclaim aesthetics that are considered “ugly” by standards of convention and taste. 

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they embrace imperfection, insignificance or failure. 

 

against the HD resolution they praise early computers aesthetics, or the digital deficiency 

 

for the urge of zero-flaw plastics, they answer with excessively exhibited bodies, or with the so castigated fashion vulgarity

 

for mass porn, they show mundane erotic accumulations 

 

to respond to the end of metaphysics, they create mini-encrypted-epiphanies, 

etc. 

 

thus, we do not define the ugly as a specific set of plastic characteristics, but rather as a symptom of our time. 

 

our exhibition is not an answer, but a blossom of artistic explorations, an attempt to capture the irony of our time.